How To Start, Stop, And Avoid Skidding On Icy Roads
“You know the nearer your destination, the more you’re slip sliding away,” the old Simon and Garfunkel standard goes. That may be the case for area motorists on their commute to work tomorrow morning if the weather forecast, which calls for a chance of freezing rain and sleet, holds up.
As the first decade of this millennium draws to a close, it seems the more things change the more they stay the same when it comes to transportation in the Washington metro area. Metro trains crashed, Virginia rest stops closed, automated traffic cameras made tens of millions from drivers, and more drivers talked and texted while driving; yet, highway deaths declined and work on many critical projects in Virginia and Maryland rushed forward, all part of the region’s transportation tableau of 2009.
With 230,000 federal workers returning to work in the cold light of day for the first time in five days, plus another 200,000 motorists hitting the Capitol Beltway, and untold thousands of consumers who are finishing up that last-minute Christmas shopping, some folks are having a tough time with their cars and their commutes in the aftermath of the blizzard of 2009.
The “Blizzard of 2009″ and “the big dig” in its aftermath let loose a flurry of emergency calls from thousands of stranded and snowbound motorists to the roadside assistance switchboard at AAA Mid-Atlantic. From the time snow began falling Friday evening to midday today, the motor club has responded to 43,657 calls from motorists across the mid-Atlantic area.
This Christmas 2.5 million Washington area residents, a staggering 42.6 percent of the local population, will travel 50 miles or more from home to celebrate the holidays in the places of their own nativity, AAA Mid-Atlantic is projecting. That’s the largest projected number of travelers from this area for any major holiday this year, according to AAA, the largest leisure travel organization in the nation and region.
Virginia Governor Tim Kaine declared a state of emergency, authorizing state agencies to assist local governments responding to the winter storm that will affect the Commonwealth today and tomorrow. Between eight and 16 inches of snow is expected.
U.S. Congressmen Jim Moran (D-VA) and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) welcomed the House’s passage of the Fiscal Year 2010 Defense Appropriations Bill which includes $300 million for BRAC-related transportation mitigation efforts at Fort Belvoir Community Hospital and the new Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda. The installations and their surrounding communities stand to be heavily impacted by the 2005 BRAC-mandated consolidation, set to conclude in September 2011. At Fort Belvoir, the Army Corps of Engineers estimates that without this infrastructure investment, commuters who use I-95 or Rt. 1 would experience a three to four hour delay each rush hour.
Last night, the Alexandria Transit Company’s Board of Directors got its first look at a proposal to reduce service and increase fares on DASH, the City’s bus system.
